US President Donald Trump has slapped sanctions on the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC), accusing the physique of attacking Israel and the US.
In an government order issued late on Thursday, Trump known as the court docket “illegitimate” and positioned monetary and US visa restrictions on ICC employees and anybody helping ICC investigations towards the US and its allies.
Trump stated arrest warrants issued by the ICC in November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of warfare crimes in Gaza, had been “baseless”. Nevertheless, analysts have described his order for sanctions as “an assault on the rule of regulation”.
Here’s what we all know up to now:
What does the chief order say?
Trump’s executive order claimed the ICC has “abused its energy” by issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant and acknowledged that The Hague-based court docket has taken “illegitimate” actions towards the US and its “shut ally” Israel.
Trump’s order, which coincides with Netanyahu’s visit to the US, authorises sanctions and restrictions corresponding to asset freezes and journey bans towards ICC officers seeking to prosecute Americans and “allies”.
The White Home outlined Israel as “a democratic state whose army strictly adheres to the legal guidelines of warfare”.
“The actions taken by the Worldwide Legal Court docket towards Israel and the US set a harmful precedent,” it continued, accusing the ICC of “malign behaviour that threatens to violate American sovereignty and undermine nationwide safety and international coverage”.
Neither the US nor Israel are signatories to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC in 2002.
How did the earlier US administration reply to the arrest warrants?
In November, then-US President Joe Biden known as the ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu “outrageous”.
Moreover the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the ICC additionally issued an arrest warrant for Hamas army commander Mohammed al-Masri, referred to as Mohammed Deif, “for alleged crimes towards humanity and warfare crimes dedicated” in Israel on October 7, 2023 when Hamas led assaults on military outposts and villages in southern Israel wherein 1,139 individuals had been killed and greater than 200 had been taken captive into Gaza.
In an announcement, Biden stated: “Regardless of the ICC may suggest, there isn’t any equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We’ll at all times stand with Israel towards threats to its safety.”
Israel stated it killed Deif in July in southern Gaza. Hamas confirmed his dying final week. The ICC indicted him together with two different Hamas leaders, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh – each of whom have additionally been killed.
On January 9, the US Home of Representatives handed laws that will sanction the ICC in a 243-140 vote.
“America is passing this regulation as a result of a kangaroo court docket is in search of to arrest the prime minister of our nice ally Israel,” Consultant Brian Mast, the Republican chairman of the Home International Affairs Committee, stated in a speech earlier than the vote.
The one legislators who didn’t help the invoice had been Democrats. however 45 members of the social gathering voted for it. On January 28, the US Senate blocked the legislation.
How will the sanctions work?
Sanctioned people could also be denied entry into the US. They may even have their US belongings frozen and be denied monetary dealings with “US individuals” and entities, together with banks. Entities outdoors the US may additionally lose entry to the US monetary system in the event that they violate sanctions.
Sanctions violations may end up in fines and imprisonment.
Trump’s government order targets ICC employees accountable for the court docket’s “transgressions”. Sanctions will also be utilized to employees relations in addition to these helping with ICC investigations.
The names of people focused by the sanctions haven’t been launched. However previous sanctions towards the ICC – issued in 2020 throughout Trump’s first time period – had been aimed on the chief prosecutor and an aide who ran an ICC investigation into alleged warfare crimes by US troopers in Afghanistan.
Will sanctions stifle ICC investigations into Israeli warfare crimes?
Inserting ICC officers below sanctions may hinder ongoing investigations by making it harder for them to journey and entry funds. Trump’s actions additionally threat discrediting worldwide efforts to deliver warfare criminals to justice.
Yossi Mekelberg, a professor and Israel analyst at London-based Chatham Home, instructed Al Jazeera: “That is an try to intimidate the ICC as an organisation and those that work for it.” He added that the chief order may “scare individuals from cooperating with the ICC”.
Saul Takahashi, a professor of worldwide human rights regulation at Osaka Jogakuin College in Japan, instructed Al Jazeera the oblique implications of Trump’s transfer “could be very severe”.
“The chief order talks about not solely sanctioning precise employees members of the ICC … but in addition individuals who cooperate with the ICC within the investigation into Israeli officers,” he stated. “We’re speaking about human rights activists, victims, and so forth. These type of individuals could also be shut out of the US or face penalties.”
Neve Gordon, professor of regulation at Queen Mary College of London and a board member of the Worldwide State Crime Initiative, stated he doesn’t anticipate the ICC’s “extraordinarily brave” employees to backtrack from their investigations.
Gordon instructed Al Jazeera: “Given their [ICC staff members’] historical past of resistance and their willingness to face up and communicate reality to energy with the intention to uphold the regulation regardless of years of stress, I doubt that this government order will make them bow down.”
Will this order hamper the functioning of the ICC?
In an announcement printed on Friday, the ICC stated Trump’s government order seeks to “hurt its unbiased and neutral judicial work” however pledged to “proceed offering justice and hope to hundreds of thousands of harmless victims of atrocities internationally”.
“We name on our 125 States Events, civil society and all nations of the world to face united for justice and basic human rights,” it added.
Worldwide monetary establishments may chorus from working with the court docket on account of the sanctions.
“The stakes couldn’t be greater,” Gordon stated. “Although the sanctions are aimed on the ICC and its unbiased and neutral judicial work, they really represent a direct assault on the post-World Battle II worldwide authorized order.
“By concentrating on the one worldwide authorized establishment that has enforcement capability referring to the post-World Battle II worldwide authorized regime, the chief order in impact undermines worldwide humanitarian regulation, together with 1949 4 Geneva Conventions, the 1951 Genocide Conference and a sequence of worldwide conventions referring to legal guidelines of warfare and human rights.
“It’s an assault on the rule of regulation.”
Mekelberg stated Trump’s transfer sends a “chilling message to different worldwide organs that in the event that they don’t adjust to the US, they may endure”.
Nevertheless, Takahashi stated the direct impression of US sanctions on the ICC would most probably be “restricted”.
The court docket “shouldn’t be in the US. It’s in The Hague within the Netherlands”, Takahashi instructed Al Jazeera, including that solely ICC employees with US belongings had been in danger.
What have the reactions to the order been up to now?
Trump’s government order has provoked expressions of alarm from all over the world. European Council President Antonio Costa stated the sanctions “undermine the worldwide felony justice system as a complete”.
Sanctioning the ICC threatens the Court docket’s independence and undermines the worldwide felony justice system as a complete. https://t.co/zk0lsnB1p0
— António Costa (@eucopresident) February 7, 2025
The Netherlands stated it “regrets” the order, declaring that the court docket’s work is “important within the struggle towards impunity”. Amnesty Worldwide labelled the transfer “reckless”.
For his half, Israel’s prime minister applauded Trump’s transfer. On X, Netanyahu posted: “Thanks, President Trump, in your daring ICC government order. It’s going to defend America and Israel from the anti-American and antisemitic corrupt court docket.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
Thanks, President Trump, in your daring ICC Government Order. It’s going to defend America and Israel from the anti-American and antisemetic corrupt court docket that has no jurisdiction or foundation to interact in lawfare towards us.— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) February 7, 2025
In the meantime, Israeli International Minister Gideon Saar said he “strongly” recommended Trump’s government order.
“The ICC aggressively pursues the elected leaders of Israel, the one democracy within the Center East,” Saar wrote on X. “The ICC has no jurisdiction – Israel and the US usually are not events to the Rome Statute and usually are not members of the ICC. They’re thriving democracies with militaries strictly adhering to worldwide regulation.”
